The present invention relates generally to cotton harvesters, and more specifically to compactor structure for compacting harvested cotton within the harvester basket to increase basket capacity without increasing basket size.
Various compacting structures have been used to compress relatively light and fluffy cotton into a basket to increase the maximum capacity of the basket. Typically, compacting augers have been supported in the basket to direct the cotton rearwardly and compress the cotton against the back of the basket. Although the augers have significantly increased the amount of cotton which can be held in the basket, the cotton is compressed more densely in the rear of the basket than in the front. At times, the augers will stall out and no more cotton will fit in the basket. The basket then contains dense cotton in the rear and non-compacted less dense cotton in the front. Therefore, the capacity of the basket is not optimized, and the dumping characteristics of the cotton from the front to the rear of the basket differ because of the difference in the densities. Since the maximum capacity of the basket is reduced by uneven compacting, the basket must be dumped more frequently which results in reduced productivity of the cotton harvester.